The Labour Party has detailed its promise to cut waiting times for NHS operations to a maximum of 18 weeks.

The promise formed a key part of the party's health mini-manifesto launched on Tuesday.

Tony Blair joined health secretary John Reid at a bad-tempered press conference to outline how a third-term Labour government would achieve its aims by buying 250,000 operations in bulk from the private sector.

But the event was also used to launch a fresh attack on Tory health plans, which Reid described as "illegal and immoral".

The health secretary again challenged Opposition leader Michael Howard to say whether he would repeal the original NHS legislation which outlaws "charging".

"It is the size of your clinical problem not the size of your wallet that should determine what treatment you get and how fast," he said of Conservative plans to subsidise the cost of private operations with NHS cash.

The prime minister is eager to wrest back the health agenda from the Tories following criticism of the level of cancelled operations last week.

Progress

Angry that progress since 1997 has been misrepresented in some of the media as money wasted, he even lectured journalists on the need for "balance" in their coverage.

"In 2005, no it is not perfect, yes there is a lot to do, but yes also it is definitively better than it was, improving significantly," Blair said.

"That is why it is so important that we carry on moving the service forward and don't switch the clock back.

"Today we have put some flesh on the bones of the pledge that we have given on health, which is to make sure that we have an 18-week maximum waiting time, with no hidden waits."

"We will do this in three ways," he added. "First, by increasing capacity in the NHS.

"We are undertaking the biggest hospital building programme since the NHS was founded with over 130 new hospital schemes in the pipeline. This will enable us to treat more patients, faster.

"Secondly, by increasing patient choice so that spare capacity in the system is used as efficiently as possible and patient can opt to have a faster operation by going somewhere other than the local hospital.

"A choice of four or five hospitals by the end of this year, around 50 by the end of next year and any hospital in England which meets the NHS tariff by 2008.

"Thirdly, by buying in more capacity from the independent sector - in fact an extra 250,000 operations which will help to cut waiting times for patients."

Targets

But ahead of the policy launch, the Liberal Democrats dismissed Labour's "target-driven approach to the NHS".

"Labour's first instinct when something goes wrong in the NHS is to set another target or impose another fine. Often the targets get hit but the point gets missed," said health spokesman Paul Burstow.

"Both Labour and the Tories are offering patients false choice. 

"For most people their first choice is a quality health service close to home, but without quality and capacity 'choice' rhetoric."